MIAMI — The man accused of a politically motivated attack on a Republican Party canvasser in Hialeah last month actually encouraged the canvasser to keep handing out fliers just moments before the fight started, according to cellphone videos obtained by the Miami Herald — raising more questions about whether the canvasser was attacked for being a Republican, as both he and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have repeatedly stated.
“It’s OK, bro, we’re telling you, do your job,” Jonathan Casanova, 27, can be heard saying to canvasser Christopher Monzon, 27, who was handing out Rubio fliers in an east Hialeah neighborhood on Oct. 23.
The videos — which are not contiguous and do not capture the actual beating — show an escalating argument between Monzon and his two alleged assailants, Casanova and Javier Jesus Lopez, 25, outside Lopez’s home. Lopez can be heard in the footage telling Monzon to “keep walking” while also threatening to “rush” the canvasser. At one point, Lopez threatens to shoot Monzon.
Although Casanova mentions the canvasser’s Rubio T-shirt and says “look what the U.S. Senate brings,” the video does not show him saying Monzon was unwelcome in the neighborhood because he was a Republican, as Monzon later told police.
“Just do your job, bro,” Casanova says repeatedly as he stands with his body angled away from Monzon. Pointing him down the street, Casanova told Monzon, “You’re looking too hard.”
Standing between Monzon and Lopez, Casanova assured Lopez’s mother that he had the situation under control. But soon the two young men started taunting Monzon — who was walking away — for being a “chicken.” And a second video, taken moments later, shows the canvasser returning to square off.
While Rubio tweeted that the attack was politically motivated, a defense lawyer for Casanova told the Herald that wasn’t true, despite his client mentioning the Rubio shirt in one of the videos.
The attorney, Joseph Chambrot, said the fight actually began because Monzon was staring too intently at Casanova’s girlfriend, who was seated inside her boyfriend’s car.
“This has nothing to do with Sen. Rubio ... or the Republican Party,” Chambrot said. “This has absolutely nothing to do with politics. Too much testosterone in the room.”
Both Lopez and Casanova have criminal records, including for violent conduct.
The videos were provided to the Herald by defense lawyers. It’s not clear if other cellphone videos of the incident exist.
Hialeah is a Republican stronghold. State records show that Casanova registered to vote with no party affiliation and Lopez has never been registered. His mother is a registered Republican.
Rubio’s campaign has said the senator learned the attack was politically motivated from Monzon’s father, Rey Cedeno. Rubio contacted Cedeno the morning after the attack after hearing the father on a call-in show on Radio Mambí, according to campaign spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory. Although Cedeno never explicitly said the attack was political, Mambí host Rosa Peña immediately blamed paid “anarchist elements and leftists” for the attack.
But reached by phone late Friday, Cedeno seemed to question whether the attack on his son was politically motivated after all.
“I think, personally, they just chose that subject about Marco Rubio just to pick a fight,” Cedeno said after watching the videos. “I personally don’t think these guys are political. But they definitely did mention the name.”
Monzon did not originally tell police that the attack was political when they interviewed him at the scene. The accusation of political motivations came in a second interview with police the following day, after Rubio had been in touch with the family and tweeted that Monzon had been beaten “by 4 animals who told him Republicans weren’t allowed in their neighborhood.” When police reinterviewed Monzon, he said the fight started after Casanova told him he “could not pass through because he was a Republican.”
Cedeno acknowledged that the videos show Casanova seemingly trying to de-escalate the situation while encouraging his son to keep canvassing. Still, he said it was “ludicrous” to suggest that the fight had started because Monzon ogled Casanova’s girlfriend. Cedeno described his son as bookish and uninterested in chasing women. Whatever caused the fight, he said the videos showed Lopez as the obvious aggressor.
“Regardless of what the cause may be — political, not political, even if he had messed with the guy’s girlfriend — it doesn’t matter. Nobody deserves to get beaten like that, for any reason,” Cedeno said.
He said doctors have warned the family that Monzon could have permanent damage in his right eye as a result of the beating. He also suffered facial fractures.
Rubio’s campaign did not respond to questions from the Herald about the videos or Cedeno questioning the political nature of the attack.
Both Lopez and Casanova have been charged with aggravated battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police say they kicked and beat Monzon while he was lying on the ground after Lopez rushed him.
Prosecutors charged them with the deadly weapon count because Casanova allegedly told two of his German shepherds to attack Monzon after the fight broke out.
‘You want to fight?’
The longest of the three cellphone videos shows Monzon engaged in a heated discussion with Casanova and Lopez outside Lopez’s home.
“Look at this, look at this. Marco Rubio. Look what he’s representing,” Casanova said, as he pointed and laughed at Monzon, who was wearing a Rubio T-shirt and a Gov. Ron DeSantis hat.
“I just don’t like being talked to that way,” interjected Monzon, who was handing out political fliers.
“You don’t like being talked to, keep walking,” said Lopez from off-camera.
“We keep telling you, it’s OK, bro, we’re telling you, do your job,” Casanova continued. “Go do your job, bro. That’s all we’re doing. Go do your job. You’re looking too hard, bro.”
The video then shows Lopez saying “I will rush you” and “You want to fight? I’ll let you do one-on-one.” Lopez also appeared to say that he would shoot Monzon.
At that point, Monzon started to walk away before Lopez and Casanova began taunting him for being “scared” and he turned back toward the two men, as that first video in the sequence ends.
Casanova’s attorney, Chambrot, said the footage shows that the fight was a case of “mutual combatants” — young men jawing at each other and squaring off in a show of toughness.
While Monzon did initially walk away, he then returned “in a fighting stance,” the lawyer said.
“[Monzon] is walking away. His pride is offended and he comes back and now he wants to fight to save his honor. It’s mutual,” Chambrot said.
A second, shorter video shows Monzon walking toward the men.
“He squared up,” one of the men comments in the video.
“This is why you don’t bring p---- a-- n----- into Hialeah,” said Casanova’s girlfriend, who has not been named.
The final video shows Lopez’s mother trying to separate her son and Monzon with fliers scattered on the ground. Monzon is shown shuffling back and forth with his hands raised like a boxer.
“That’s it,” the girlfriend shouts. “That’s it, bro.”
The videos corroborate how Lopez’s mother, Diana Rosa Lopez, described much of the fight unfolding in an earlier interview with the Herald. She also said that her son had never voted and that the fight was not about politics.
Lopez was arrested the day of the fight and Casanova later that week.
Since his tweet turned the fight into national news, Rubio has insisted Monzon was attacked because of his politics. Monzon said the same at a rally in Miami Springs last weekend.
Monzon has a history of espousing white supremacist beliefs but has said he regrets his past comments, as well as his association with a white nationalist group, the League of the South. Members of the Proud Boys, another far right-wing group, attended the Miami Springs rally and a previous rally held the day before in Hialeah.
The Republican Party of Florida has not answered questions about why it hired a former white supremacist as a canvasser.
In a press conference last month, Rubio said Monzon had left his former views behind.
“By the way, I think he’s rejected all those things and that’s what we want people that have those views to do,” he said. “To change their minds and reject them and walk away from them.”
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